Archaeology of the American South Anthropology 550 Spring 2020

Home , Buttermilk Creek Complex, Cactus Hill

Week 2: Paleoindian Arrival

The Clovis culture, traditionally dated 11,500-11,000 14C years BP has long been recognized as the earliest well-documented occupation of North America. At the same time, the question of whether “pre- Clovis” cultures existed has for decades been one of the most hotly debated questions in American archaeology. Here we will discuss the questions of when and how the South was first colonized.

Currently there are a handful of sites in the South (and nearby) for which claims of pre-Clovis antiquity have been made. These readings offer a sampling of what we know about these sites. The general readings (which everyone must read) provide an overview of some allegedly pre-Clovis sites. The supplemental readings (which will be divided among the class participants) give additional details on these sites.

Anderson, David G., and Kenneth E. Sassaman (2012). Pioneers and Colonists of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. In Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology: From Colonization to Complexity, pp. 36-65. SAA Press, Washington, D.C.

Goodyear, Albert C. (2005). Evidence of Pre-Clovis Sites in the Eastern United States. In Paleoamerican Origins: Beyond Clovis, edited by R. Bonnichsen, B. Lepper, D. Stanford, M. Waters, pp. 103-112. Texas A&M University Press.

Clausen, C. J., A. D. Cohen, Cesare Emiliani, J. A. Holman, J. J. Stipp (1979). Little Salt Spring, Florida. Science 203:609-614. [Focus on the earliest occupation.]

Waters, Michael R., et al. (2011). The Buttermilk Creek Complex and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas. Science 331: 1599-1603.

Halligan, Jessi J,. et al. (2016). Pre-Clovis occupation 14,550 years ago at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, and the peopling of the Americas. Science Advances 2: e1600375 (13 May 2016).

Supplemental Readings:

Adovasio, J. M., J. D. Gunn, J. Donahue, R. Stuckenrath (1978). Meadowcroft Rockshelter, 1977: An Overview. American Antiquity 43(4): 632-651. [Focus on the pre-Clovis assemblage and dates.]

McDonald, Jerry N. (2000). An Outline of the Pre-Clovis Archeology of SV-2, Saltville, Virginia, with Special Attention to a Bone Tool Dated 14,510 yr BP. Jeffersoniana 9: 1- 59. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville. [Focus on the earliest occupation.]

Michael R. Waters et al. (2009). Geoarchaeological investigations at the Topper and Big Pine Tree sites, Allendale County, South Carolina. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1300–1311 [Focus on sections 1-3, 8, and 12.]

Macphail, Richard I., and Joseph M. McAvoy (2008). A Micromorphological Analysis of Stratigraphic Integrity and Site Formation at Cactus Hill, an EarlyPaleoindian and Hypothesized Pre-Clovis Occupation in South-Central Virginia, USA. Geoarchaeology 23(5): 675–694. [Focus on pp. 675-679, 691-692.]